Border skirmish shadows Korea talks

July 18 2003By Shane GreenTokyo

Picture: PETER WESTJohn Howard and wife Janette were guests at Japan's Imperial Palace yesterday of Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko, who thanked them for the hospitality extended last year to Crown Prince Naruhito and Crown Princess Masako.

North and South Korea exchanged machine-gun fire across their heavily fortified border yesterday, even as signs emerged that the North might return to talks to end the crisis over the Communist state's nuclear ambitions.

North Korean troops fired at least four rounds at a South Korean post at Yonchon in the middle of the sensitive Demilitarised Zone. South Korean troops responded with 17 rounds.

The incident early yesterday morning occurred before Prime Minister John Howard's trip to Seoul for talks today on the nuclear crisis with South Korean president Roh Moo-hyun. That topic dominated Mr Howard's talks with Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi.

No South Koreans were hurt in the exchange. North Korea did not comment on casualties.

The incident, the first in the zone since November 2001, coincided with optimism about a new round of three-way talks on the nuclear crisis, involving North Korea, the US and China.");document.write("

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North Korea has initiated acts of provocation before, and yesterday's incident could be an attempt to increase the pressure on the US before the talks. There have been periodic clashes in the area, about 50 kilometres north of Seoul.

In Canberra, Acting Prime Minister John Anderson played down the firefight, saying while regrettable it was not "terribly unusual". "I don't think we should take this as some sort of escalation of tensions at the cross-border level," he said.

The last significant North-South clash was in June last year, when a naval firefight killed six South Koreans and an estimated 13 North Koreans.

However, there were encouraging signs yesterday that China's pressure on North Korea to take part in talks on the nuclear crisis might succeed.

US Secretary of State Colin Powell said: "The diplomatic track is alive and well and I expect to see some developments along that track in the very near future."

Chinese Vice-Foreign Minister Dai Bingguo arrives in Washington tomorrow to brief the Bush Administration on his meeting in Pyongyang with North Korean leader Kim Jong-il.

China's Foreign Ministry yesterday urged the two countries to revert to a 1994 agreement, under which the US agreed to supply North Korea with 500,000 tonnes of fuel oil annually and two light water reactors if Pyongyang shut down its heavy water nuclear reactor and scrapped efforts to build itself a nuclear bomb.

The US stopped the shipments after Pyongyang admitted to operating a uranium enrichment program for weapons.

At the urging of a concerned China, North Korea may drop its demand for direct talks with the US and take part in the three-way talks.

The US, which wanted talks to include South Korea and Japan, offered conditional support for the three-way meeting.

But US officials remain cool on China's "compromise" proposal that North Korea and the US have separate, direct talks on the sidelines. The convoluted arrangements for the talks must first be worked out before they can proceed.